1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape connector lock for use in a tape cartridge. The cartridge is used in a two-piece videocassette. One piece is a removable cartridge and the second piece is a complimentary videocassette adaptor. Together the two piece assembly emulates an industry standard videocassette.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has become common to use magnetic recording media supplied in a cassette format for consumer videotape applications. The traditional cassette format includes both a supply reel and a take-up reel. The tape is wound on to the supply reel. One end of this tape is permanently attached to this supply reel and the other end of the tape is permanently attached to the take-up reel. In the cassette, the supply reel and the take-up reel share the same housing, and, in use the videotape machine transports the tape between the two reels. This packaging strategy is inefficient for tape storage due to the inclusion of an empty reel in the package.
It has been proposed to supply magnetic recording media in a more compact and space efficient cartridge format for a variety of applications. In the cartridge format, the housing contains a single supply reel for storing tape. The "free" end of the tape must be threaded or otherwise attached to a remote take-up reel.
Cartridge-to-cassette adaptors which convert a cartridge format product to a cassette format application are also known as evidenced by U.K. Patent Application No. 2,217,684 A to Davis for example. This reference teaches a videotape application of a single supply reel cartridge product.
Another example of a cartridge-to-cassette adaptors for videotape products is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,436 to Novak. Novak teaches, inter alia, a carrier or adaptor which is used to adapt a videotape cartridge to an industry standard videocassette format. With respect to the cartridge-to-cassette adaptor context, Novak provides a spring loaded pair of jaws to restrain a tape connector within the cartridge. The spring force generated by these jaws must be overcome to withdraw tape from the cartridge. These jaws may not reposition the tape connector to a fixed position in the cartridge and do not prevent unintended forced removal of the tape connector from the cartridge.